Two Thousand five hundred dollars

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Hi Everyone.
I bought my 67 mustang conv. about a year ago because I thought it would be a neat hobby. I have really enjoyed driving the car and working on it. I think I have learned a little about cars in the past year but nothing really technical. I am embarrassed to say it but I only have 2 real sources of information. I ask questions in this forum and then do a google image search so that I can see what parts you guys are talking about. I would like to spend $2,500 on my mustang. But, I dont think I have acquired enough knowledge in the past year to make an intelligent decision on the matter. I know that amount of money cant come near paying for everything that I would like to do the the car. But, how could the money be best spent. I realize this is a very objective question that depends greatly on what I want in a car. So below is a very brief description of the long term end results that I would like to achieve. I do not plan on selling the car.

1. A daily driver.

2. Good practical power. I would like optimal performance. Which is to say that I would like to get the most out of my engine while keeping it reliable. I took a look at "package A" at fordsix parts. That sounds like a possibility?? Clifford headers???

3. Very quiet

4. 5 speed transmission that changes smoothly.

5. Slight aggressive stance.

6. Factory air conditioning(not the large unit beneath the dash)

7. No shaking or rattling.

8. Repair minor cowl leak.

9. Improved handling.



Looking over what I just wrote it sounds like I am looking for a road map of sorts. At any rate, I honestly appreciate any advice, ideas or opinions that you have to offer. I also appreciate your patients with these "mustang 101" questions.


Regards

Mark
 
are you saying that you have $2500 to spend now? (i envy you :? ) if that is the case, and those are the mods you want to make, what are your priorities?
handling first? power next? get everything working correctly (AC, leaking cowl, etc.) then modify what you want?
let us know what your first goal is, then we can help point you in the right direction

as for the shaking and rattling, what exactly is shaking and rattling? i can think of a few things that would be bad news, but then again, the timing could just be slightly off

good luck
evan

BTW - i think the best first mod would be the ignition system, maybe a petronix system, or a duraspark II, something like $60 for the petronix, the duraspark would be a lil more though
 
8) i would say first get the body work and rust repair done, dont paint the car yet. then get the chassis, suspension and brakes done. you need the solid foundation to get the most out of the car. next would be the drivetrain. engine; a 200 with the aussie head and the good headers mike sells, a comp cams 260 cam or one of the mild street grinds that mike will be selling, and a holley 350cfm 2bbl carb. dont forget to balance the engine rotating assembly. the T5 you want can come from any ford car that had one. now you are ready for the interior. you can add what ever sound deadening material you like to get the car as quiet as you want but remember it adds weight. add the a/c at this time. last paint the car.
 
$2500! Thats what I paid for my mustang 5 years ago. Jezz... and I've put something like $6000 into now and I'm still working on it. As for the pertronix, its more like $120 than $60, I just bought one last week btw. Why the increase? You need a flamethrower II coil which is $35.
 
$120? what exactly did you buy?
i snagged mine (ignitor) for something like $60 from NPD(bought it over a year ago), they have the ignitor II for $99.95
Why the increase?
are you asking why the D II would be more? i admit that i don't know the exact price of it, but i am pretty sure that buying the distributor for it alone would be a bit more than $60, of course there is always the junk-yard...
 
RogueS":cypts36z said:
if i recall correctly, the DII distributor is around $55

just checked a few things......
*sigh* :roll:
don't mind me, i'm an idiot....... :oops: :oops: :oops:
evan

*muttering to self*
.....stupid aftermarket hi performance V8 crap...... messing with my mind......
 
"are you saying that you have $2500 to spend now?" --- YES

" i would say first get the body work and rust repair done" -- Their is no rust on the car and the paint is good.(other than the cowl) You can see it here

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community ... 109699&ck=

the pic is called "67 was a good year"....ignore the 67 beetle. The mustang has always been garaged and was not driven much by the PO. It only has 80,000 miles on it.

"as for the shaking and rattling, what exactly is shaking and rattling?"--I dont know exactly what it is but I will try to explain them.


I have four types of shaking and rattling.

1.
Is a pretty straight forward repair, I think. On rough roads there are lots of little noises coming from all over the interior. When I replace all the rubber I think that will help things.

2.
The shaking is really what has me concerned. I have to give lots of gas and let out on the clutch slowly in order to minimize the rear end shaking. This is exaggerated when taking off on a hill. In fact my driveway is on a hill and it sounds awful when driving off.

I had some work done on the car a while back and think I was taken for a ride. The shop did all sorts of things to my mustang ($1,700 worth.....I know....I know.....a fool and his money). He rebuilt my the clutch...rotated and ground the plate......... etc... This helped some, but not for long. The previous owner told me the clutch was from a pickup truck.....another thing that I noticed is the bolt pattern on the rear wheels is 5 lug, unlike the front which is 4 lug. The speedometer is off by about 5 mph, and while driving the rear end seems to be a bit louder than I think it should be.

3.
The third shake is the left front wheel area. At first everything is fine. After about 30 minutes or so of driving there is a loud squeeking noise on rough roads. If I stop the car and push up and down on the left fender the squeeking continues. If I park the car over night and push up and down on the fender the next morning there is no sound.... But after driving for a half an hour or so it starts all over again.

4.
A rattling noise comes from beneath the shifter when driving. If i hold the shifter in my hand and to the side, or lay my leg against it, it stops.


Thanks again for your help
 
hmmm, number one and number four sound like pretty much the same thing, something that acted as a bushing, or some sort of dampener (like the rubber in the front quarter windows) has stopped absorbing the vibration, either that or something is loose, it might be a nut that isn't all the way tightened down, just give the areas a good once over and see if you can find anything that looks loose (i know mine does pretty much the same thing on country roads, buzzing, rattling, tinkling, all kinds of noises, if i let someone else drive my car it would be possible to find the problems... that being said, i dunno if i'll ever find them)

with the shifter though.... i guess that a look at the bushings in the shifter wouldn't hurt, but i don't know how much it would help either...

don't feel bad about spending that much, i think every new owner of an old car (if it is their first old car) does something similar, i know that my mother and i spent enough on a brake and suspension job to easily buy a front disc brake conversion, as well as an aftermarket suspension kit if i knew then what i know now :roll: :roll:

good luck
evan

PS - beautiful mustang!!
is that a '67 florida tag i spy on the front of your car?
 
"is that a '67 florida tag i spy on the front of your car?"

Indeed sir!!!........Supplied by the original owner

If you spy a bit closer you can see a big grin on my two year olds face behind the wheel.
 
:roll: you say repair small cowl leak. you will want to also check the floor pans. holes in floor pans go hand and hand with small cowl leaks.( small or large) nice looking stang...frank...
 
Mark, I would add to Frank's comments. Once water is in, it rusts its way out. Check the car extra thoroughly for starters.

As to where to spend the money, engine wise? I would say if you're not sure, hold off for a while. Evaluate its present condition, perform needed repairs with good parts, and wait until you have a handle on all non-engine problems. Sorry to hear you overspent on one occasion. I have had this happen in the past (similar figure) on bodywork; it's why I became self-taught.

Adam.
 
the rattling in the shifter is easy to fix. It is the bushings hat hold the shifter handle on the sides. i just replaced mine and was worth every penny of the $50....but it will prolly costy you less if you dont rip the boot by being agressive in searching.

do you have NPD catalogue? you need stuff from page 96. Insulator bushings to bolts....little bushings that desintergate over time ($1.79)

plus a shifter mounting rebuild kit ($20.00) which has the side to side insulators.

if you remove the front carpet (pull back) and remoover the boot, its and easy fix.


I also had a squeek in the fonrt end that only showed when the car warmed up. A good lub job took care of it.
 
Just for your info i bought all the stuff for dura spark conversion for about $ 170. Thats dizzy, cap, rotor, accel hi perf coil(HEI i think), module, and platinum plugs.
 
Since you already have a 5 lug rear end, one good modification/repair would be to convert the front to five lug disks. The how to is outlined extensively elsewhere on this site, just do a search. You can do most of the conversion with used or remanufactured parts. If you do a front suspension rebuild at the same time you will get great value by improving the handling and the braking in one fell swoop. I would highly recommend doing the shelby mod at the same time. It's free, really helps the handling, and will give you a slightly more aggressive stance. All together it's a heap of work, but well worth it. Of course, you'll need another pair of five lug wheels to match your rears, but all together it should be relatively economical (anybody got any estimates?) and will address that squeak you were talking about.
 
Where to start, there are so many things you could do....

Evan is right, DO NOT FEEL BAD about the money you dropped on the car, we all have done that, I paid 700.00 for an install on a rear axle assembly and another 1250.00 for a drum brake rebuild. One year later the rear goes out (it was a junker they only installed it out of the salvage yard for that price) and the brake job was crap and I went to disc brakes 12 months later..... now I have a NEW REAR AXLE and DISC BRAKES and didn't come close to 2000.00

As for the car.... here's the truth, it hurts sometimes, but I wish I had been told all of this:

The rattles, tackle them one at a time, you will be tackling them for the next couple of years... one at a time elminate them, and expect new ones to show up once you have some figured out. I cannot tell you how much time I spend finding noises....

Here is a list of the best noise fixes:
Lube and check all ball joints, bearings in the front suspension.
Replace and seal all old rubber, doors windows, (while in the door check and replace/service the channels and regulators, my windows accounted for a lot of noise.)
Pull the interior and layer the floor with sound material, I did two layers of Dynomat and another layer of Mustangs Plus pre-formed sheets, then padding and carpet. Three layers and insullation on the firewall and seal all openings in the entire cabin. (This was my entire summer last year in addition to rebuilding the dash and wiring, and it was not pretty driving with no interior all summer in 95 degree weather (I drive every day while I am working on the car.)

My last advice here applies everywhere, check all of the bolts on the car for torque, especially body panels and check all mounts on the tranny and engine. (I still find loose bolts - lat weekend found out my bumper was loose and rattled.)


As for the other areas here are some things to consider....

Your shake from the drivetrain could be related to the rear, the tranny, or the clutch. Sounds to me like a clutch problem, first Rule here is most stop-and-shop type places don't get many 67 Mustangs in and the likelyhood the guy working on your car is gonna take the 5 minutes to find out that one step he doesn't have to do for every Honda he works on, but needs to do for your car will not happen.
Your best bet is to find an independant shop that has someone who likes to work on Mustangs, my guy calls me to see how the car is coming and running (I think he just loves having it to take out for a spin... but he also likes engines that are basic and run on principle not computers.

Watch for the sound in the pinion, get that checked, at least check the oil level.

For 2500, you could....
Install the T5, but that will likely eat a lot of the money, depends on how it runs, if you are driving daily get it running and eliminate the emergency breakdowns, those can cost four times planned mods and repairs. My T5 with a reliable rebuild and performance parts cost just under 1000.00 I would wait and do this with an engine rebuild, include the rear if it can wait...?

I would definitely do the front suspension, get new springs, and shocks (good ones) and install new ball joints at least, upper and lower arms.. you can get a nice kit from Mustangs Plus and do the granada swap for the disc breaks, spindles will cost the most here and you will need to replace the steering components too. I did all of this early last year and you are looking around 1500.00 for a decent rebuild with some searching and salvage trips.... then get four nice 5-lug wheels go up to 15X7 at least, get good tires and your ride will improve dramatically. Throw in some sub-frame connectors and you are going to reduce some more of those noises you were talking about and get a stable ride.


Your four main areas are:

Drivetrain/Engine/Rear.... 2500.00 possible but low.

Interior/AC..... more realistic cost goal.

Cowl Repair..... you might need more unless you do it yourself. Serious. Most places will want to remove the windshield, interior, and fenders, plus to do this, I have a series of quotes from 2300-4000.00 none lower.
(you could do what I did for temp.... I installed a Classic Auto Air under dash unit that works great, takes up almost no more space than the old one, and is much quieter, and does not use the fresh air vents, so I closed them off..... no more cowl problem, for now....

Front Suspension, steering and wheels.... my first choice if I were you, include brakes here you can do some damage for 2500.00.


It's your time and money and how you use the car will likely decide for you....

My background, is my car ran poorly and in Feb I took it off the road for a complete engine rebuild... it ran good at first, but while I was rebuilding the suspension, and brakes, then the interior, the engine died, so I am at the engine/tranny/rear part of that list, my paint and exterior are not the best, but do for now, I need the car to run. I can paint it next year, besides the moment I paint the car it will get hit or chipped. I spent around 3000.00 for my front suspension, but I bought a kit for the brakes that I would have done differently now. I spent about 2600.00 for the interior which included the AC and a custom stereo and gauge cluster. And I am holding on the Cowl, for now.

One last note on the longest reply I have ever given, the engine/tranny/rear I listed as do-able but tight for 2500.00 that is because here you can spend as little or as much as you want. You can put 2500 into all three or you can put it into each one... depends on what you are going for, read up on performance and decide how far you want to go. Realize a lot of machine work and even some custom work can net you big gains, at the cost of money, time and reliablility. A decent core rebuild with some performance add ons can make a big difference and not break the bank, I went for right down the middle, OK maybe a tad overboard here but I wanted to turn some heads specially at an I6 on show day....


Happy hunting.... ask lots of questions, the ones you don't ask can cost you more than not asking.
 
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